Pages

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Tahini Cookies

A couple of weeks back, my Aunt Jenny issued me a challenge. Like on iron chef, she would give me an ingredient and I was to make something with it. She gave me a jar of tahini and told me the rule was "no hummus!" She promptly left the country for a little R&R in the Dominican Republic. Yep, she had fun in the sun while leaving me here to recover from our Mother's Day dessert buffet and gear up to dive head first into Jax's birthday party and Nana's wedding the next two weekends. So now, with all of the hubbub behind us, I finally got a chance to turn back to the tahini challenge!

My first thought was to make some cookies, because... well... cookies! Who doesn't love cookies? I had my great-grandma's peanut butter cookie recipe out as something to make soon. My first inclination was to replace the peanut butter with tahini and call it a day. But her recipe makes A TON of cookies. And as I mentioned before, we have had a lot of sweets around lately. Besides, what if it didn't work? That would be an epic waste! So, I went to something much smaller... and it worked pretty beautifully.

These cookies aren't overly sweet. I can imagine they would be perfect alongside an afternoon tea. I wouldn't know because despite my best efforts to turn into a tea drinker, I just can't do it. Maybe someday! The cookies have a really nice nutty flavor and a great texture. As an added bonus, there are no eggs in the dough, so you can taste away!

I would like to give my aunt an encore tahini recipe. What are your favorite non-hummus ways to use tahini?

Tahini Cookies

makes 8 medium cookies

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup tahini

2 tsp honey

1/2 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1-2 additional T of sugar

In a mixing bowl, stir together the butter and sugar. I used my spatula to make sure it was fully incorporated and there were no lumps of butter.

Stir in tahini, honey and vanilla.

Rather than using a second bowl, I piled the flour on top of the we ingredients and then added the baking powder and salt to the top of the flour. I mixed the dry ingredients briefly with one another before stirring them into the wet ingredients. (Hey, the fewer dishes to wash, the better. Am I right?)

Chill dough for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350F

Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and roll them into balls. Roll the balls in sugar and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the ball of your hand or the bottom of a glass.

Bake for 14-16 minutes. Tops should crack some. Cool on the cookie sheet for at least 8 minutes. They are very soft right out of the oven, and moving them too quickly could result in a crumbled cookie. (If that happens, go ahead and eat it! The warm cookies are really good.) They hold together much better after they have cooled.